By JORDAN STRICKLER

Kentucky Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An April executive order by President Trump establishing a task force to evaluate the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has led to a nationwide campaign by both the National Assoc. of Letter Carriers and the American Postal Workers Union (APWU): “The U.S. Mail is Not for Sale!”

The USPS, which is not involved in the campaign, reported a loss of $4 billion for the latest fiscal year, ending on Sept. 30. Despite a 7 percent increase in package delivery, the agency has not been able to offset drop-offs in letter mail, which makes up 70 percent of the organization’s total revenue.

The 12th straight year of losses has given Trump ammunition to take the agency out of the government sector. In the administration’s June release of its Delivering Government Solutions in the 21st Century report, it argues the USPS has “extremely high fixed costs … as a result of relatively generous employee benefits combined with a universal service obligation that is understood to require mail carriers to visit over 150 million addresses six days per week.”

With its chronic financial difficulties, USPS “can no longer support the obligations,” the report added.

While latest annual revenue was $70.7 billion, compared with $69.6 billion in 2017, higher transportation and labor costs from delivering more packages has attributed to the shortfall. The USPS receives all of its revenue from postage and package delivery and no funding from tax dollars.

However, a 2015 analysis by former Treasury under secretary and chair of the economic consultancy Sonecon, Robert Shapiro, stated taxpayers subsidize the USPS through other methods. He estimates that, all told, the subsidies and legal monopolies Congress bestows upon the agency is worth $18 billion annually.

These include laws which bar other entities from delivering to residential and business mailboxes, as well as tax breaks the USPS is given from state and local property and real estate taxes, he said.

A recent poll by the Pew Research Center, though, shows 88 percent of the population has a favorable view of the Postal Service. In a recent op-ed in the Miami Herald, APWU President Mark Diamondstein says the move from the Trump administration is purely to help select corporate organizations’ profit.

“If allowed to move forward, (privatization) will enrich some Wall Street investors and a few powerful corporations,” he writes. “For the rest of us, the ‘99 percent,’ it would result in diminished postal services and higher prices … These plans from the highest levels of government demonize and degrade postal workers’ contributions and are part of an attempt to convince the public to support postal privatization.

“These privatizers want to drown out the quiet, unsung postal workers’ heroism in the recent moment of (the pipe-bomb) crisis. They ignore the real-life stories of how the Postal Service and postal workers are consistently on the front lines in returning normalcy to our communities following devastation, such as from hurricanes in Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, flooding in Texas and North Carolina, fires in California and volcanic eruptions in Hawaii.”

The popularity of the USPS and the possible rate hikes privatization could usher in has prompted Congress to take action to try to ensure the USPS remains an independent establishment of the government not subject to privatization. Both House Resolution 993 and Senate Resolution 633 are bipartisan bills that have been submitted to ensure the USPS remains free of privatization.

“Local post offices are the backbones of our rural communities – even more so now as small businesses rely on the Postal Service for the ability to participate in online business,” said outgoing Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who brought the Senate resolution to the table.

“The incentives simply aren’t there for private companies to take mail that last mile for people living in rural communities, and I’m going to fight tooth and nail to ensure that every Missourian, whether in a small town or big city, has access to the critical services the Postal Service provides.”

When asked for comment, the USPS pointed to its previously released statement that remarked “(W)hile these recommendations are being developed and then considered by the President and Congress, it remains necessary to put the Postal Service on firmer financial footing through immediate legislative and regulatory reform.

“We therefore continue to urge Congress to enact the pending postal reform legislation and the Postal Regulatory Commission to replace the current price cap on our mailing products. We will continue to aggressively manage our business, and to serve the American public.”